You Never Know
by ihaveastory
Summary: Gilmore Girls-Everwood crossover. Ephram comes to Yale. Post their respective season finales.


You Never Know

Disclaimer: I don't own shit.

Summary: Gilmore Girls/ Everwood crossover. Ephram comes to Yale. Here's the problem: In actuality, Ephram is two years younger than Rory, so for the sake of this story we are going to say that we are a year in the future of Gilmore Girls and three years into the future of Everwood. Does that make sense? Pretty much, it's been a year since Raincoats and Recipes and three years since this past season finale of Everwoood. So Rory and Ephram are both going to be juniors in college. Got it? Good.

A/N: I had to write this. I couldn't make myself focus on my other stories until I started this one. I hope you like it. Please read and review.

Chapter One: Across the Hall

Ephram stopped the car and sighed. He had just driven cross-country from Everwood, Colorado with a two-year-old and a twenty-two-year-old. It had been a long trip. A very long trip. After a pleasant moment of silence, Bright awoke with a jerk.

"Dude, are we there?" He asked as he pushed the palm of his hand into his eye.

"Yep. We're here." Ephram nodded slowly.

"Well what are you waiting for, man? Let's get out of this car already." Bright groaned enthusiastically.

"Ok. We're going to the brick building up here. Building number 40." Ephram read from the sheet of paper in his hand.

"Cool. I'll get J and you can go get the keys from the Super." Bright said as he got out of the passenger's seat and closed the door behind him.

"Sure." Ephram muttered to himself before getting out of the car, walking up to the building and buzzing the button that said "Super Int.

"Hello?" A garbled voice responded through the speaker.

"Hi, um, I'm Ephram Brown. The landlord told me to get my key from you?" He always felt uncomfortable in situation like this. He didn't know why.

"Oh yeah. I'll be right up." The voice said before a loud buzzing erupted from the speaker and Ephram pushed the front door open. As he stood in the doorframe, using his body as a human wedge to keep the door from closing, Bright hopped up the few steps to the entrance with a giggling two-year-old under his arm and a diaper bag over his shoulder.

"Was he cranky?" Ephram asked as he eyed the child with tender wariness.

"Yeah, but I just flew him around for a bit and he was cool." Bright answered with a grin at the kid.

"I swear, you're going to give him brain damage if you keep that up." Ephram shook his head.

"Not a chance. My grandma used to do that to me all the time when I was little." Bright explained before receiving a pointed look from his friend. They were interrupted, however, when an old man, with leathery skin approached them from inside the building. He was wearing a paint-splattered jumpsuit that suggested that he was the Super.

"I'm Alphonso Murphy, the Super." He greeted in a wheezy voice with a heavy, unidentified accent.

"I'm Ephram Brown." Ephram shook the man's gnarled hand. "This is Bright Abbott." He gestured accordingly. "And this is my son, Julian." He finished the introductions.

"Oh, well, ok. That's good then. Alright." Alphonso muttered to himself. "Anyway, here are your keys." He handed the ring of three keys to Ephram. "This is for the door to the building, this is for the door to your apartment, and this is for your mail box." He touched each key quickly as he explained. "I live in the basement apartment. You folks are up in 2B. Ok. Good." He wandered away and left Ephram and Bright to share a look.

"Well, that was sort of weird." Ephram shrugged his shoulders at the whole situation.

"Anyway, let's go check out the space." Bright's expression quickly returned to that of excitement.

"Why don't we grab some more stuff from the car before we go up so that we have fewer trips to make?" Ephram suggested.

"Ugh. You're no fun at all." Bright groaned before passing Julian to his father and stalking out of the vestibule.

"Apparently, I'm no fun." Ephram informed the child in his arms, who merely smiled in response. "Yup." Ephram sighed before adjusting the kid and walking to his car.

"Mr. Murphy told me that new people are moving into the apartment across the hall today." Paris informed her roommate as she entered the kitchen.

"Oh, that's good." Rory shrugged.

"From what I heard, they are young men." Paris said with a scowl.

"Is that good or bad?" Rory asked with an arched eyebrow.

"It's probably horrible. I'm sure they're just some loud, repulsive boys who moved off campus so that they could be even more loud and repulsive." Paris let out without breathing.

"Maybe they won't be so bad." Rory shrugged.

"You're just wondering if they're good looking and in need of a na•ve girlfriend." Paris arched her own eyebrow.

"To bad they're not your type. Mr. Murphy said _young_ men." Rory had a small, evil smile on her lips. She and Paris spent all their time throwing scathing remarks at each other just for the fun of it.

"Unfortunately for you, they probably aren't your type either. You see, the fact that they are sharing an apartment implies that they are not currently married." Paris retorted with an evil grin.

"Hey! Foul! You broke the rules. I said not Dean jokes." Rory was still smiling, but it had drooped slightly.

"Actually, you said no Dean jokes for six months, but if you check the calendar you will see that I gave you an extra week. Dean left in February, and it is now August." Paris returned in an argumentative tone. She didn't want to be mean, but she knew that the Dean thing had reeked havoc on Rory's mind and she just wanted to help her get over it and she thought joking was the easiest way.

"Fine. You got me." Rory conceded. Her smile had left. She didn't look sad, but she looked distant. The silence between them was broken when they heard a loud crash in the hallway. They ran and opened the front door to see what was going on. In the hall was a tall man with wild, blonde curls under his baseball cap. He held a large, brown box in his arms and was staring down at another box that looked to have fallen from his grasp.

"What was that?" A stern, male voice called from the bottom of the stairs.

"Nothing?" The blonde man answered with pained eyes.

"That didn't sound like nothing. That sounded like all of our plates and glasses breaking." The unseen man shouted back.

"Those are some good ears you've got." The guilty man replied with hesitation before looking up and seeing Rory and Paris in their doorway. "Hi." He said with a flirtatious smile.

"Hi." Rory greeted. Paris stayed silent, with a look of distain on her face. "Having some trouble?" Rory asked politely when she saw that Paris wasn't going to say anything.

"Just a bit." He rolled his eyes at his own failure. At that moment, she caught sight of the other man. He had dark, messy hair that fell into his eyes over his defined brow. Under his scowling eyebrows were hard, blue eyes that made him look old. His soft, frowning lips, however, made him look like a child.

"Hi." He greeted quietly as the glower slipped from his face. He didn't smile, but his eyes softened slightly. He looked at the two women in the doorway. One was blonde and angry looking, but the other, well, the other was beautiful. Her dark hair curled somewhat as it fell to her shoulders. She was wearing a tank-top and skirt that revealed a lovely amount of her creamy skin. When he saw her eyes, though, that was when he stopped breathing.

"Hi." She greeted just as quietly. Wow. She hadn't felt butterflies like this in a very long time. There was something about this beautiful person that made him look like an ancient child. It was almost magical. Their reverie was broken when something made a noise at the bottom of the stairs. This clatter ripped the young man's attention away. Rory noticed as he suddenly became very alert. Not panicked, but focused.

"Bright, can you help me with the last thing?" Ephram asked with a nod towards the stairs.

"No problem Bro." Bright answered, giving a look between his friend and the dark-haired girl with whom he'd shared a moment, before following Ephram down the steps.

"Dude, she was hot." Bright whispered to his friend.

"You don't have to tell me that." Ephram responded with a shake of his head.

"Well, well, well." Paris whispered to her friend.

"Shut up." Rory moaned before looking back to the stairs where she saw the blonde man backing up the stairs with something in his arms. Her breath caught when the two men had reached the top step and placed the final item on the landing. It was a stroller. With a kid. They had just brought a kid in a stroller up the stairs. The small boy had dark, straight hair that hung down to his chin. His blue eyes were opened wide in wonder as he pursed his soft lips and looked at the strangers in front of him. She knew whose kid this was. Ephram noticed the searching look in her huge eyes and rushed to introductions.

"This is my son, Julian." He introduced quickly.

"Oh." Rory nodded for no reason.

"I'm Bright Abbott." Bright stuck into the silence.

"Paris Gellar." Paris put out there.

"Oh, I'm Rory Gilmore." She came to her senses.

"I'm Ephram Brown." He stuck his hand out to Paris first, because, well, he didn't know why, and then he met Rory's hand in a soft shake, that was almost more of a hug between hands. Julian giggled loudly and everyone turned to look at him.

"Hi." The small boy chirped with a wave. Rory noticed the proud look on Ephram's face.

"He almost never says that at the right time." The smiling father explained.

"Did he just start talking?" Rory asked. She didn't know anything about babies.

"Eh, it's been a few months, but it's usually just free-association. You know, "blue", "dog", "book". Easy stuff like that." He answered humbly, but with animation.

"Ah, yes. The important words." Rory grinned shyly as they gazed at each other.

"Anyway," Bright broke in. "We should probably get this crap into the apartment." He suggested to his roommate.

"Oh, yeah." Ephram shook the slightly goofy look from his face and turned to the stroller.

"Oh, hey," Rory suddenly heard herself speak. "Would you guys like to come over to our place for dinner tonight?" She asked. "You know, considering you broke all your plates and stuff." She drifted off quietly.

"We would like that very much." Bright answered quickly. He wanted food and his buddy definitely wanted this girl.

"Ok. Is seven good?" Rory asked before suddenly remembering the kid. "Or is that to late for him?" she gestured awkwardly at Julian.

"No. That's fine. He's sort of a night-hawk." Ephram babbled his explanation.

"Good." Rory smiled quietly.

"Good." Ephram let his light smile reach his eyes.

"Fabulous." Paris interjected dryly. "We'll see you then. Bye." She pulled Rory back into their apartment and shut the door.

"Hey!" Rory pulled her arm out of Paris' grasp.

"You invited them to dinner?" Paris questioned.

"Yeah. I was trying to be neighborly." Rory answered.

"You were trying to be more than that and you know it. Now we have to have dinner with them. Some scrawny guy, a big goon, and a baby! A baby!" Paris threw her arms in the air and walked into her room.

"A baby." Rory mumbled to herself.

Across the hall, Bright smacked Ephram on the back.

"Nice." Bright congratulated.

"What?" He played innocent.

"With my help you'll get that girl within a week." Bright grinned.

"Yeah, whatever." Ephram tried to shrug off his friend's comment. He hadn't gotten the girl in a long time. But, hey, you never know.


End file.
